Agriculture Made Accessible

Context

Last summer, I worked as a Design Partner for early-stage startups that were part of

Iowa State University's Pappajohn Centre for Entrepreneurship, where I had an opportunity to work with an early-stage Agritech startup, SoilSerdem.

Leveraging on the company's breakthrough in soil-fertility mapping, the aim was to build a product that commercializes this method and seamlessly fits into daily agricultural practices.

Role

As a consultant, my role involved creating & documenting a design system, defining the UX research practice for the team through workshops, and making recommendations for systems designs based on insights gathered through research.

Due a confidentiality agreement, I can't give away details about this project.

But I can talk about a few parts of the work that really excited me and what I did there.

Exploring New Grounds

One of the exciting parts of this project was the exploratory sessions I conducted with farmers in rural parts of Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, and Oregon.

Coming from Bangalore, India, I was unfamiliar with this demographic, facing challenges in understanding accents and conversation contexts during the interviews.

Leading a team of MBA grads in this project, I had the privilege of educating them on UX basics and guiding them through the nuances of conducting effective exploratory interviews.